Author: Shawn Whatley

Victimhood Culture

Being tough is out of style, except in sports and criticizing doctors…soccer notwithstanding.

Trudeau’s tears make the front page. It is woke to cry.

Canada used to be tough. Life was hard. You needed grit to survive.

Parents wanted children to grow up and leave childish things behind. Life is better now, softer.

Toughness has less value in a world of Starbucks and Superstores. Why celebrate pioneering toughness when there is no pioneering left to do?

Toughness also has a dark side. Grit without compassion is cruel, heartless. Humans are born cruel and learn compassion. For those raised poorly, “Grow up,” might mean, “You are nothing.” Continue reading “Victimhood Culture”

Social Trust and the Welfare State

I need a medication that I don’t want to take and am too cheap to buy. I just avoid certain foods.

My son wants me to eat with abandon like him.

“Dad, aren’t your drugs free?”

“No,” I said. “Only kids’ meds are covered.”

“Well, why don’t you just get it under my name?”

“Because that would be lying.”

“Oh, good point,” he said. His shy smirk reassured me.

Johan Norberg created a documentary called Sweden — Lessons for America. Most of us picture Sweden as a socialist utopia. Norberg says, No. Continue reading “Social Trust and the Welfare State”

Government Wins if Doctors Win – Doctors’ Darkest Hour

Legolas trained his ear on Caradhras, “There is a fell voice on the air.”

The entrails of lynx and the hump of hyena divine the portents. Palm readers foretell young widows, poverty and bankruptcy.

Doctors plumbed new depths this weekend. Starving sailors cast lots on whom to eat first. After six years of cuts, OMA council seems to have voted to attack colleagues. Rob Peter to pay Paul. Is the profession imploding?

When the day looks darkest, and the opposition insuperable, it is the worst possible time to cast lots on whom to throw overboard.

You might as well surrender. You have lost the ground to govern. No amount of rhetoric can justify support for even greater cuts to specific sections at the depths of the deepest cuts of all times. Continue reading “Government Wins if Doctors Win – Doctors’ Darkest Hour”